Ohio teachers face intense backlash over Charlie Kirk social media posts: Is it freedom of speech?

Two Miamisburg High School staffers, band director Steve Aylward and social studies teacher Rachael O’Connor, were placed on paid administrative leave during an investigation. As of Friday, no employment decisions have been made, district officials confirmed.

Aylward was placed on leave for his comments on social media, while O’Connor was placed on leave for a 30-second audio clip where she is recorded discussing Charlie Kirk with students.

Reactions from both the Miamisburg and Xenia communities have poured in, either in support of the teachers, or calling for them to be fired.

What have other teachers said?

The vast majority of the 36 districts who responded to a records request said they had no complaints.

A few districts, however, did.

A Valley View play director resigned after students allegedly played the video of Kirk’s shooting during a rehearsal and discussed his death, records obtained by this news outlet show. Two parents contacted the high school and said their child would no longer be attending the rehearsal after the incident.

In Covington, one parent reached out to the high school principal about a business teacher, according to emails obtained by this news outlet. However, the principal, Bridgit Kerber, said she did not believe that the teacher meant any harm by holding a discussion about Kirk in his class.

“He plans to apologize to his students today,” Kerber wrote in an email to a parent. “It is of the utmost importance to me that our students feel valued and safe in the classroom to express their opinions, and share healthy debate.”

Middletown City School officials received two complaints regarding social media posts made by employees about Charlie Kirk’s death.

In one, an employee posted on Facebook, “If it exists, Charlie Kirk is burning in hell.”

In a TikTok video, another employee said, “(Charlie Kirk) had the most punchable face and punchable personality, in my opinion...You watch him talk to women, and he is way worse than when he’s talking to men.”

There currently is no discipline for either employee as these social media posts have currently not violated policy, according to school officials.

The line of free speech?

People being disciplined for their social media posts is nothing new. Both public and private organizations have the right to make their own hiring and firing decisions, and what you say on social media — even if perceived to be private — reflects on the company you work for, said Mark Smith, dean of Arts and Humanities and professor of Political Science at Cedarville University.

“We have a right to free speech, but that’s not quite the same thing as saying I can go online and post whatever I wish, and then no consequences will come to me from that,” Smith said. “We sometimes think, ‘I have a First Amendment right,’ which is true, but that First Amendment right has some pretty particular limitations on it that people don’t always grapple with.”

Working for the government, as public school teachers do, adds an extra level of complexity, Smith said.

“When you’re functioning as a public employee, to some degree you’re representing the state at one level, but you’re also have the rights of the citizen on the other, and those things can come into conflict,” Smith said. “And we’re seeing a perfect example here of them coming into conflict.”

The assassination of Kirk, however, provides a striking insight into the state of American social media. Americans experienced the events of that day practically in real time, Smith said. Graphic videos of Kirk’s assassination were online almost instantaneously.

“We all felt like we were observing it almost directly,” Smith said. “And then, of course, you add social media to that, and social media feeds it.”

“It’s emotional, for sure, but I think our media environment, our social media context in particular, has really ratcheted those emotions up on both sides, because it’s profitable for those companies,” he added.

Attempts by the federal government to crack down on certain types of speech should be met with particular scrutiny, Smith said.

“I think when you look at the Vice President’s comments, when you look at the FCC and their approach to ABC and Jimmy Kimmel, I think you see a pretty clear effort by the Trump administration to discourage certain kinds of speech and to look for the punishment of certain points of view,” Smith said. “I think this administration, frankly, is probably the most hostile administration of free speech of my lifetime.”

Americans’ culture of free speech has long been buffeted from both sides, he added, but for individuals and local communities to enact positive change, Americans must realize that we must extend rights and liberties to people that we vehemently disagree with.

That, and get off social media.

“We need to be protective of a culture of free speech,” he said. “We have to understand that we’re creating an environment where different points of view are appropriate and are welcome...Part of living in a free society is you’re gonna hear points who you disagree with. And right now, that culture is essentially non existent.”

Reporters Lee McClory, Bryn Dippold, and Eric Schwartzberg contributed to this report.